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Fluendo Codec Pack 18 Supports GStreamer 1.0

Phoronix: Fluendo Codec Pack 18 Supports GStreamer 1.0

Fluendo, the well-known company that backs the development of GStreamer and has also sponsored projects like PiTiVi and other open-source multimedia projects, has released Codec Pack 18. Special about Codec Pack 18 is that it's intended for use with GStreamer 1.0.

I am curious about one thing. If I have installed all GStreamer plugins from repos and then install the Fluendo ones, will the Fluendo plugins get chosen by application? Is there any way how can I check which exactly libraries/files decode my videos?

Fluendo's DVD player must be the all-time best seller in the Ubuntu Store . Although a foss alternative exist, their products targets people who want an easy solution.
Is there anything that those codecs does better than the already availlable free codecs ?

Micheal, are you considering supporting Flattr ? I'll be happy to support your site and great work that way.

Fluendo's DVD player must be the all-time best seller in the Ubuntu Store . Although a foss alternative exist, their products targets people who want an easy solution.
Is there anything that those codecs does better than the already availlable free codecs ?

Fluendo codecs are Legal but many in the FOSS are not legal to redistribute[hence why many distros ship nerfed ffmpeg/libavbuilds] in many countries/mined with patent and is some cases are subpar[certain type of WMV3 videos], so if you wanna full fledged codecs[except windows DRM support] fluendo give them to you and those are legal to use[they pay licence to patent holders/owners]

the DVD player is the same story since we play DVD on linux illegally cracking in realtime the CSS encryption[libdvdcss] of the media, well they sell you an app that can play legally those DVD.

they are not free since fluendo have to pay a fee to patent holders/owners to be able to stay in the legal side.

I am curious about one thing. If I have installed all GStreamer plugins from repos and then install the Fluendo ones, will the Fluendo plugins get chosen by application? Is there any way how can I check which exactly libraries/files decode my videos?

GStreamer provides a plugin system with a central registry.

Plugins expose:
- their role, for exmple a video decoder
- their capabilities, for example able to decode h264 into I420 image data
- their rank, which is just a number that allows to sort the plugins

Fluendo plugins register them self with a rank grater than 'PRIMARY (255)' and then are auto selected over other similar plugins in the applications based on playbin/decodebin auto plugger elements.

If an application uses those autoplugger elements to construct the playback pipeline it can also be inspected by using the GStreamer debugging facilites like in the following example:

$ GST_DEBUG=playbin*:5 totem ~/movie.mp4

It should show you which plugins are selected to play a particular media file. They are referred as 'factory' in the log output.

Fluendo codecs are Legal but many in the FOSS are not legal to redistribute[hence why many distros ship nerfed ffmpeg/libavbuilds] in many countries/mined with patent and is some cases are subpar[certain type of WMV3 videos], so if you wanna full fledged codecs[except windows DRM support] fluendo give them to you and those are legal to use[they pay licence to patent holders/owners]

the DVD player is the same story since we play DVD on linux illegally cracking in realtime the CSS encryption[libdvdcss] of the media, well they sell you an app that can play legally those DVD.

they are not free since fluendo have to pay a fee to patent holders/owners to be able to stay in the legal side.

Thanks for the clarification, I was also wondering why anyone would bother with Fluendo.

I do wonder how many people actually care if they're using illegal codecs. I feel like if you lived in a country where dvdcss is illegal, how is anyone ever supposed to know? If both the movie and movie player aren't pirated, I don't see how there's an easy way to check if what the user is doing is illegal. It's kinda like willingly being the passenger of a car but in the trunk of the car. It's illegal to ride in the trunk but if the driver's license is valid and the car is legal to ride, how is a cop ever supposed to know there's illegal activity? Even if you're pulled over, the cop doesn't have a right to look in your trunk without reasonable suspicion.

Thanks for the clarification, I was also wondering why anyone would bother with Fluendo.

I do wonder how many people actually care if they're using illegal codecs. I feel like if you lived in a country where dvdcss is illegal, how is anyone ever supposed to know? If both the movie and movie player aren't pirated, I don't see how there's an easy way to check if what the user is doing is illegal.

Generally no one cares on the consumer side, but it's important for companies. Whether that's the company shipping the distro, or a company looking to roll out linux onto a bunch of workstations.

I wouldn't be opposed to making a purchase if in part it helps support GStreamer, but according to Wikipedia, "in 2007, most of the core GStreamer developers left Fluendo, including GStreamer maintainer Wim Taymans who went on to co-found Collabora Multimedia together with other GStreamer veterans, while others joined Sun Microsystems, Oblong and Songbird" (source). So how involved is Fluendo in GStreamer these days?